Activision recommends closure of Bizarre Creations

Publisher said to have looked at all other options.

Activision has decided the best course of action to take regarding Liverpool-based Bizarre Creations is to close the studio, Activision Worldwide Studios' chief operating officer Coddy Johnson has told Develop.

Late last year reports of a possible studio closure surfaced, the publisher stating that although it "made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience."

There had been hope the studio would live on under the ownership of a new publisher, but Johnson's comments suggest this is now unlikely to happen.

He told Develop: "I want to be clear, our first choice was to try and keep this group together and find a buyer for the studio."

He added that the publisher had "explored a lot of leads - pretty much anyone you can imagine in the industry."

This hunt for a buyer ultimately failed.

"We've not been able to find and interested parties. So we've made as a last resort, a recommendation to the team for closure," he concluded.

It's sad to hear that Bizarre is likely to close; the studio gained a lot of fans for its Project Gotham Racing series on Xbox and its related Geometry Wars games.

Despite being rather great, Blur failed to attract an audience. The team's 007 Blood Stone also failed to live up to sales expectations.